Sunday, 9 June 2013

A sunny day near Hartshill

posted 12th June

After a relaxed breakfast Dave cycled up to Hartshill village for the paper and we spent a pleasant morning relaxing in the sunshine, doing a few chores and reading the paper. Paul and Elaine in Caxton waved as they passed us their way south as we were relaxing with a cup of coffee. We had a nice Sunday lunch in the pub and managed to use their wifi to actually post to the blog – though as the signal dropped out I only managed one of the backlog!

After lunch we went for a walk taking the Quarryman’s Path from the towpath down towards and across the railway, then towards Caldecote Hall, which a walker told us was converted into apartments after the owner died some years ago (known for holding “weekend parties with people from London”, apparently).

We crossed the pretty River Anker and were finally treated to a view of the fabled Mount Judd, a massive spoil heap from Judkin’s quarry which Nicholson’s and Pearson’s promised us yesterday. We lost sight of it as we got back towards the canal.

We rejoined the towpath opposite Springwood Haven marina which is in a most attractive setting. (It looks better from the boat).

We spotted the little stone milestone nearby, which Pearson’s enjoins us to treat with respect for the unknown stonemason who carved it back in the 18th century.

We also discovered the source of the garlic smell we noticed yesterday – the wild garlic was flowering in profusion just off the towpath and we picked a few leaves to use in cooking later.

This is the pretty winding hole a few hundred yards before our mooring spot.